After much testing, following the September launch of m.tampaelectric.com, Tampa Electric’s new mobile Web site, I felt it was high-time I posted the accomplishment here. The design, production and launch of this mobile site has been a year-long goal for me and I finally carved out the time in the schedule to meet this goal. Tampa Electric, a fairly conservative company, is usually a wait-and-see type culture as opposed to a “lets be the first and lead” when it comes to communication. However, this seemed to be an easy sell — from my boss, all the way through the executive board, everyone agreed that this was a great idea. Lucky for me as this was tied to my performance review goals and rating.

NickFranceDesign.com has a mobile web site as well. A different URL is not needed to access it as it utilizes a WordPress plugin called WordPress Mobile Edition. If you browse to this site on your mobile, you will be served the mobile edition by default. If you want to browse the full site, just scroll to the bottom of any page and click “Exit Mobile Edition.”

When designing or re-designing your website, it’s not enough to know the numbers on browser usage across the internet, for all sites total. You should study your own numbers. Using your web analytics software, study the browser of choice for your site, from your audience, not the internet at large. Your audience will will tell you a lot, if you pay attention to the numbers. Don’t guess — know for sure how many are viewing your site in Firefox and Safari, as opposed to Internet Explorer or Opera.

From the chart shown below, we see that although IE may have a larger market share, overall, that’s not the case for 37signals.com. This may be true for your site as well. Different industries attract different audiences with diverse demographics. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world out there, so don’t assume that as the internet goes, so goes my website. Use your numbers, but to use them you must first know them. If you’re not using web analytics software, like Google Analytics, or FeedBurner, get started as soon as possible. Stop guessing, know your numbers.

I decided to launch the new site today, not because it’s finished and to the point I’d like it to be, but because I realized it will never be done and rightfully so. It will always be evolving and growing. I felt it was at the point in time to get it out there and have you, the user, reader, potential client be apart of the continual process. The portfolio will evolve to be more of a case study than simply a portfolio because behind every project there are business needs that need to be accomplished. As a freelancer, as opposed to simply a designer, it’s my job to come away from a project having helped the client to achieve this.

I will continue to place an emphasis on social media and a Content Management System (CMS) for my clients, going forward. There’s so much happening right now and we’ve only scratched the surface. So keep an eye out for changes and growth here at nickfrancedesign.com, you can follow me on twitter, if you like.